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Miracle worker ANNE Rust is somewhat of a midwife and a surrogate mom. For the last four years the founder and president of Pacific Connection Fertility Services Inc. has been helping middle-aged women have babies using the eggs of younger women. The experience is so overwhelming, Rust says, that she feels she's also gone through the labor process by the time a mother delivers her infant.
Women who donate their eggs to
Donor gives couple 'miracle baby'
Pacific Connection Fertility Services
help hundreds of couples' dreams
of conceiving a child come trueBy Janine Tully
Star-BulletinRust recalls her excitement at getting a call from the hospital from the parents of the first baby she helped conceive.
"I had twins, two girls!" she remembers shouting as she jumped around with joy.
Since that happy day in 1996, Rust has helped 70 couples have babies; 11 more are going through the process and nine are waiting for the perfect donor match.
As women delay motherhood in pursuit of careers their chances of pregnancy decrease. Pacific Connection is one of hundreds of agencies throughout the country helping women to beat the biological clock through donor IVF (in vitro fertilization). The procedure involves taking the eggs of a young woman, fertilizing them with the sperm of the recipient's husband and transferring two of the embryos into the mother's womb. The donor receives $3,500 for providing her youthful eggs.
"Women are delaying motherhood without realizing that their fertility rate will decline as their eggs age," says Rust. "They have planned their lives and careers based on the mistaken belief that their fertility will remain normal well into their 40s. Sometimes women in their 30s experience premature menopause and don't produce eggs."
In fact, women start losing their eggs soon after birth. A woman in her 20s has a 95 percent chance of becoming pregnant, by age 35 the figure drops only marginally, but by age 40 the chances of getting pregnant are minimal, at 5 percent. Ultimately, the egg supply reaches zero and menopause occurs, typically at age 51. But long before menopause the quality and supply of eggs decreases to such a level that pregnancy becomes unlikely, experts say.
Generally, regular in vitro insemination (in which a woman's egg is fertilized with her husband's sperm) doesn't work as well in women over 42, says Dr. Philip McNamee, a reproductive endocrinologist with the Pacific In Vitro Fertilization Institute in Honolulu. The egg is not as healthy and the chances of spontaneous abortion are higher.
"Donor IVF has the highest success rate of any in vitro fertilization," McNamee says, noting that about 60 percent of the women have babies. The donors are young, 22 to 28, the eggs are of high quality and so is the resulting embryo.
The risks involving donor IVF are also minimal, he says. The donor is carefully monitored for any adverse reaction she might have from hormones taken to stimulate egg production.
Egg retrieval is also very safe, says McNamee. It's a nonsurgical, outpatient procedure, in which the donor is sedated and the eggs aspired with a needle from the ovaries.
Unlike regular IVF, in which several embryos are transferred in hopes that one might be implanted, donor IVF requires transferring only two or three embryos because of their high viability, says McNamee. While regular IVF often results in multiple births, twins are the most a couple can expect with donor IVF.
"Our goal is to have one normal child," says McNamee, who has benefited from the technology. He has three grandchildren born through donor IVF -- a set of twins and a girl, age 5.
"It's wonderful, it's like Christmas all the time. We are giving couples a gift we can provide."
Performed now for about 10 years, donor IVF has been rapidly gaining converts in Hawaii. Fertility expert Dr. Kenneth Vu estimates that three or four procedures were done in 1997 at the institute; less than 10 in 1999 and 40 in 2000.
The benefits are many, says Vu. Besides the high success rate, the method allows parents to retain half of the family's genes. It also enables the mother to have a full pregnancy, thus providing a bonding period. "The mother feels this is really her child," Vu says.
The process also avoids legal problems that may surface with surrogate mothers, Vu said.
"I look at egg donation as an alternative to adoption, where a woman gets to control the prenatal aspect of pregnancy and physically give birth," Rust says.
Typically, the women that come to see Rust are between 38 and 45 years old. They have tried every type of insemination and are at their wits' end. Rust offers them hope and support.
She meets with them in her spacious office at 846 S. Hotel St., a section of which she has turned into a bright and homey sitting area with Pegge Hopper prints on the wall. Here, she assuages their fears and explains the procedure in detail.
The wife of a television producer and mother of two grown sons, Rust became interested in donor fertilization 15 years ago. After doing extensive research she felt she wanted to offer couples an alternative way to fertilization.
"This was not a whim," says Rust. "I love people and want to help them."
Donors go through a battery of psychological and physical tests, including screening for infectious diseases and HIV.
"The ideal donor is 30 or younger, a nonsmoker and with a personality for giving," says Rust. "Many of the young women also give blood, so they have this feeling of wanting to help, and as added bonus, they can help pay their tuition or student loans."
Rust recruits donors through ads she places in daily and college newspapers. She then tries to match women that best meet the recipients' ethnicity and other traits.
Following the agency's strict anonymity policy, recipients don't know who the donors are and vice-versa. Parents-to-be receive a donor's profile with test results and a current and childhood photo. Both parties then sign a contract specifying their rights.
To date, there haven't been any legal suits involving donor IVF, says Rust. "It's not like the donor is giving them a child, but a microscopic genetic material that allows them to have a child."
Sometimes, politics and religion derail what would seem a perfect match. An Indian couple once rejected a donor because she was Pakistani, says Rust.
Currently, there's a greater demand for Asian donors than Caucasian because Asian women are more reticent about donating their eggs, says Rust. "I guess it's cultural, and it might be more of an emotional experience for Asian girls."
Sixty percent of donors are Caucasian, compared to 40 percent of Asian extraction. Many of them are college students who use their fertility as a way to pay for their schooling. But money should not be a factor, Rust says. "It should be a desire to help someone."
Egg donor insemination is expensive, costing from $20,000 to $25,000, depending on the complexity of the case. The cost includes medical and travel expenses as well as the donor's fees.
Yet despite its high rate of success, egg donor IVF is not for everyone, cautions Rust. Women who have difficulty accepting that the baby won't have her genes, should not go through it. In those cases, adoption might be a better option, she said.
Just when "Kathy" had resigned herself to being childless and had gone on with her life, her doctor suggested she look into in vitro fertilization through an egg donor. Donor gives couple
‘miracle baby’By Janine Tully
Star-BulletinFor 14 years she had tried through various methods to have a baby and had failed. She knew she was getting older and had already spent more than $50,000 trying to get pregnant. At this point in her life she wasn't sure she wanted to go through the ordeal again. After all, she had a happy marriage and career, wasn't that enough?
But after mulling the idea over for days she thought, "What do I have to lose?"
"Fertility was not a problem, keeping the fetus was," said the 48-year-old island mother, who didn't want to use her real name.
Egg donor IVF seemed relatively simple and pain free. And more importantly, it offered a chance to share in the experience of "the whole tribe of women and give birth."
There were other plusses: Her husband would have a genetic child and expand his immediate family. He had no siblings.
While most woman want a child who resembles them, Kathy was more interested in finding a donor that looked like her husband. She wanted someone whose genes could produce a dark-haired, blue-eyed baby, very different from her light-skin and strawberry blond hair. She selected a donor in her late 20s, who had most of the desired traits.
The procedure took place in a California clinic where 31 eggs were retrieved from the donor and 29 successfully fertilized. With that many embryos, Kathy was sure she would get pregnant.
"I thought, 'we can't lose with these (many eggs).' " Three of the best embryos were transferred into her uterus and the rest were frozen. Kathy got pregnant but 10 weeks later, she miscarried.
"This was one of the lowest points of my entire fertility battle," said Kathy. "I thought I had a viable pregnancy. At that point we stopped trying for a while."
Aware there were still some frozen embryos left, the couple decided to put science and luck once again to a test.
Chances of getting pregnant diminish when using frozen embryos because the cells stop growing or the embryo dies when thawed, Kathy said. A few more attempts were made, only to end in disappointment. At the end, Kathy's chances of motherhood rested on only two embryos, the runts of the pack, with the least chances of survival.
"They were the smallest and most fragmented," recalls Kathy.
When the doctor transferred the two last embryos into Kathy's womb the unexpected happened: one of the eggs implanted itself in her uterus.
Except for her immediate family, Kathy didn't tell anyone about her pregnancy. She had had too many disappointments.
Hoping for the best, she awaited the birth of her child, relishing every minute of her pregnancy.
"I loved the pregnancy. I felt I was growing this child; it felt real."
Kathy's son is now 3-1/2 years old and a bundle of joy, says his mom, who prefers to keep his physical traits confidential.
He's smart, sweet and has a great smile. "He's my miracle baby."
His parents have explained to him how he was conceived in a way they think he understands.
"We told him we could not have children, and a special lady made it possible. We told him that we went to a special lady for a special gift. And we bless her every night."
Making connections
Contact Pacific Connection Fertility Services, Inc., at 536-8801.
Hope via RESOLVE
RESOLVE, a national support group for women experiencing infertility, meets the first Wednesday each month at Kapiolani Medical Center, 1319 Punahou St. The next meeting takes place 6:30 to 8 p.m. April 4 in the cafeteria.The group tries to increase public awareness of infertility through education, and often features experts in the field at its monthly meeting. Phone: 528-8559. Validated parking.
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